Help Out PhyloPic!

There's a new biology/palaeonotology art resource site on the block, and it is pretty neat. Called PhyloPic, this new site collects silhouettes of any and all animals (and plants I believe, though I haven't seen any submitted yet) living or extinct for use by anyone who might need them. Whether they need it for a technical paper or simply an educational or popular project, the idea is that there be a database of freely available images anyone can use.

I personally think this is great (especially as a teacher), and have already thrown in a contribution this morning learning of the site. I present to you my Tylosaurus/Taniwhsaurus, complete with new and improved tail fluke (this is based on direct input and collaboration with a Mosasaur expert I might add).

As this was remarkable easy to create, I set a challenge for everyone who reads ART Evolved to create at least one silhouette for PhyloPic a month. With at least 60 known contributors to our site, that adds up to 700 new critters on their site a year!

If you're interested in helping, but don't think it would be easy to create these silhouettes, I can prepare a quick and easy tutorial on just how, well, quick and easy these are to put together. Let me know if you'd be interested in the comment section.